User reviews

"Haaaarrrryyy!"

The amplified, dispassionate female voice could have been Leona Helmseley in heat but, no, it belongs to Allison Hayes as Nancy Archer, the 50-Foot Woman of the title. In the most infamous role of her film career, Allison's performance literally rips off the roof. In fact, make that a couple of roofs.

Jaw-droppingly tacky, "Aot50FW" is the tale of Nancy, a neurotic, boozy heiress and her loveless Lothario husband, Harry (William Hudson, who also co-starred opposite The Amazing Colossal Man). Nancy has a close encounter of the third kind, in the desert, with a bald giant from outer space who wears a mini-skirt and gladiator sandals, and who has a thing for Nancy's jewelry. What he does to her once he's carried her off is probably best left a mystery, but soon Nancy starts to grow.

Treading into the center of town on tranquilizers, tightly wrapped in nothing but the bed sheets, the buxom giantess heads toward the low-rent saloon where Harry is having a few laughs with a floozy named Honey (Yvette Vickers). The confrontation turns ugly.

The Poverty Row f/x make the alien giant and Nancy appear to be transparent due to incompetently transposed images. You'll understand why director Nathan Juran changed his name to Nathan Hertz on the credits. Juran was no stranger to directing giant creatures, human and non, having also directed "The Deadly Mantis," "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," "Jack, the Giant Killer" plus several episodes of TV's "World of Giants" and "Land of the Giants."

A lot of laughs for all the wrong reasons.

Rich socialite Nancy Archer encounters an alien UFO with a giant while driving on a desolate road. Her husband Harry Archer is cheating on her with Honey Parker. None of the cops believe her but they still have to investigate because of her wealth and power. Some suggests that she should go back to the sanitarium. She drags Harry out to search for the UFO. The giant takes her while Harry gets away. He tries to run away with Honey but the sheriff is suspicious of the missing Nancy Archer. They find her and put her away into the sanitarium. There she grows to be a giant 50 foot woman.

This is more notable for the poster art and the amazingly cheesy title. There isn't anything quite like it. Others come close like 'Snakes on a Plane' or 'Sharknado' or 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes', but this one has the best title of them all. As a movie, this is strictly B-movie horror material. The special effects are almost laughable from the terribly fake giant hands to the badly done optical effects of the giants. The acting is kind of interesting. These actors are trying so hard and taking it so seriously. Sometime they overact, but they never let the silliness of it all take over. It's safe to say that this is a classic bad movie.

This is a fair movie, good for one-off viewing. The plot itself is fairly well worked for a picture of this kind which is a pleasent surprise as is the acting, which although a little hammy, is better than normal for these types of flick.

The 'special effects' are hilarious - a translucent giant and a blatantly polystyrene/papier mache hand wobbling unconvincingly on a bit of wire.

Definitely to watch once for kitsch entertainment value.

5/10.

How can you NOT like this film? It's very absurdity makes it an instant classic. What absurdity you ask? Well how about the fact that when the sheriff (George Douglas) and Jess the butler (Ken Terrell) enter the giant's space ship everything is scaled to our size? How about the fact that when the giant (Mike Ross) picks up the sheriff's car it's a station wagon, when he throws it to the ground it's a sedan, and when the sheriff checks the wreckage it's a station wagon again? Or maybe the fact that Alison Hayes height seems to vary from scene to scene; sometimes she's a mere 18 feet tall and in others she is much larger. Did I, or should I?, mention that you can see right through both giants in almost every scene?

And when she reaches through the roof of the bar to pick up her philandering husband (William Hudson, who also went face-to-ankle with THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN a year earlier) why didn't they cut the scene before you saw the doll Alison was picking up had no legs? Should I even mention the fact that this movie is set in California and the deputy (Frank Chase) has a Boston accent ("Hi ya Mistah Ahhhhcha!")?

You can spot Ken Terrell doing stunts in most of the Republic serials during the 40's. Roy Gordon (Dr. Cushing) appeared in THE WASP WOMAN in 1959, Yvette Vickers (Honey Parker) had a run-in with giant bloodsuckers in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES. And Alison Hayes . . .ah, she was my dream girl when I was growing up.

Let the sourpusses deride this film, I think it's great fun. Don't waste your time with the remake, THIS is the one to catch.

It's certainly not the special effects that made "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" a monster hit in 1958, as they are numerous and sadly lacking, with one giant hand barely able to maneuver, and both giants (male and female) appearing deliberately transparent as they wander off to conduct their minor mischief. Top billed for the only time in her all too brief heyday is Allison Hayes, as sultry a dish as Hollywood ever found, already with quite a proven track record behind her - "The Undead," "Zombies of Mora Tau," "The Disembodied," and "The Unearthly," "The Hypnotic Eye and "The Crawling Hand" still to come. Not to be outdone in scintillation is future Playboy Playmate (July 1959, one of the few over age 30) Yvette Vickers, her next appearance in "Attack of the Giant Leeches" cementing her reputation as a one year wonder. So sad that both came to a bad end, Allison from botched medication that claimed her life at 46, while the corpse of 81 year old Yvette had been decomposing for a year before being discovered by a neighbor. Allison gets to play the title role, neurotic wife Nancy Archer whose drinking is well known all over town, while her philandering husband, nicknamed 'Handsome Harry' (William Hudson), holds up at the local bar and grill with impossibly sexy Honey Parker (Vickers). On a night when she has remained notably sober Nancy encounters a spaceship in the desert (everyone calls it a satellite), its lone occupant a bald giant with a need for diamonds to pilot his craft, and the famous Star of India beckoning around Nancy's soft neck. She manages to run back to town but finds no one to believe her, not the sheriff (George Douglas, Melvyn's younger brother) or even Harry, who sees this as a golden opportunity to put her back in the sanitarium from which she was recently released. A second attack by the giant has the no longer disbelieving hubby leaving his wife behind to an uncertain fate while he tries to make a run for it with Honey, before the comic deputy (Frank Chase) decides to ignore the usual bribe and take the pair to the sheriff's office for questioning. Lo and behold, Nancy turns up unharmed on her own bath house roof, though the scratches on her neck indicate that the alien was none too gentle in removing her necklace. Allison is sadly off screen for a half hour before the final reel rampage, all too mild as a handful of townspeople have little trouble avoiding her while she seeks vengeance on Harry and Honey. This was the one major role for little known William Hudson, whose twin brother John enjoyed his own starring vehicle that same year in "The Screaming Skull," also as a scheming husband. No doubt a large number of teenage boys received quite an education on its double bill with Roger Corman's "War of the Satellites," getting two satellites and three gorgeous ladies for one ticket (Susan Cabot's leading man was Dick Miller!). Even Bert I. Gordon provided better effects in "The Cyclops," "The Amazing Colossal Man," and the soon to be released "War of the Colossal Beast," but with its suggestive poster one of the best remembered from the 50s this meager ATTACK had nowhere to go but up (later featured as a drive in feature in Curtis Harrington's 1977 "Ruby").

Next to Citizen Kane, this is my favorite movie. It has all the elements a film could have. It has a man doing the most stereotypical drunk, a group of hick sheriffs, a couple bimbos, and a transparent woman who ranges from 8 feet in height to about 75 feet, depending on where the camera is. When she was transformed, she also became quite single minded in her pursuit of her errant hubby. She began to speak in three or four word phrases which were directed by her monomania. As large woman films go, this has to be a classic. I first saw this film when I was in high school. Some local TV guy hosted a show where we got to see these kinds of films. Bless his heart. This was a time of great fun and just plain awful stuff, but it was so much fun.

Okay, this movie is not going to be amongst the Top Hundred listed on the American Film Institute's "greatest" list, but it's the perfect example of a so -called "bad" film that's still wildly entertaining and good fun. Of all the notorious 1950s cheese flicks, this one takes the cake and is not to be passed over, whether you love such offbeat craziness or even if you don't. A good time is guaranteed for all (whatever your cinematic tastes and values).

Nancy Archer (the curvy Allison Hayes) is a wealthy alcoholic housewife considered the town weirdo, and she cements that reputation one night when she cries that she's just seen a satellite in the sky that supposedly come down to Earth and then swears she's had an encounter with a king-sized bald-headed giant living inside. Her rotten-to-the-core and cheating husband Harry (the perfectly-cast William Hudson) spends all his nights at the local bar blatantly smooching with sexy floozy Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers), and the flirtatious pair would love to take all of Nancy's money and be rid of her. When he learns of his wife's nutty alien story, Harry figures it's the perfect chance to send her off to the booby hatch once and for all, but he gets more than he bargains for.

At only 65 minutes, this story moves comfortably quick and there's not an ounce of dead meat to be had. Considering the absurd storyline, director Nathan Hertz (Nathan Juran) manages to get some mileage out of it anyway. Some of the all-time very worst "special" effects are on display in this cult classic, and have to be seen to be believed (the over-sized gigantic feminine "hand" is an absolute laugh riot!). Even in this present day and age of "state of the art" CGI effects, there is something eternally entertaining and lovable about these low budgeted cardboard props and cheapo transparent blow-up renderings of the giants walking around the streets. This was a favorite on New York television in the early '70s, and no kid who grew up with it can ever forget it. Be a kid again, or be one for the first time, and give this a shot for a lark. *** out of ****

A poorly done and rushed movie to say the least. I perfectly understand that the visual effects of 50's sci fi movies are nowhere near to what they are like today. But however,even for the 50s, the visual effects were awful. I would put it in the same sentence with Plan 9 From Outer Space. First off, when a movie is in an hour long but it feels like three hours, there is something wrong with it. She doesn't mutate until the final 15 minutes of the movie. There are things in the movie I question such as how a 50 foot woman can fit in her own bedroom. There is also a problem with consistency. Nancy appears to be different sizes throughout the movie. She is also at times transparent and nontransparent, which the movie makers didn't care about. The alien on the ship appears to be a stitched up old man and it is comical. I understand that it is a cult movie, which is supposed to be a movie that is so bad to the extent that it is good, but there is no point in seeing the movie. There is no element in the film that awes the audience.

This campy 1950s sci-fi film has turned into a real cult classic. The film is so bad - horrible special effects and terrible dialog - that it is a hoot to watch. It's so terrible it's fun to watch. Instead of scary you, the corny dialog just makes you laugh out loud.

I forget whether this film was made to be serious but at this point, it's like an Ed Wood film: so terrible that you laugh through the entire thing, making it a good comedy. As a bonus for guys, you get to ogle Allison Hayes, who looks good at any height!

I am amazed this movie is not available on DVD. If it wasn't well-known, they certainly wouldn't have bothered with a re-make.

'Attack of the 50 Foot Woman' is unfairly burdened with many a 'worse film ever made' tag, but, despite the dodgy special effects, it manages to have a few positive aspects. It may well be the feminist message which runs throughout the film which has caused male critics to pour scorn over the whole concern.

Hayes plays the title character, Nancy, a millionairess suffering from mental stress bought on by her philandering husband and full-time sleazeball, Harry. She is protected from self-destruction by her loyal butler ( a relationship similar to the one in 'Sunset Blvd' ), but her husbands influence is too strong as he tries to get her hospitalised, so he can lavish her fortune on his mistress.

A strange glowing meteor in the area houses a weird giant (the plot clearly doesn't bear close scrutiny) and after coming into contact with him, Nancy starts to grow also. She increases to giant proportions and, clad in a bikini, breaks out of hospital and wanders off to town to find her husband.

Despite the glaringly obvious shortcomings, there is a strong message here and the the film doesn't deserve the scorn which is heaped upon it. It also has one of the classic posters of the 1950's, with Hayes straddling a freeway picking up cars - not surprisingly this scene doesn't actually feature but it makes for a great image.

I love this movie, regardless of all of the campy errors and mistakes, i can watch this over and over again. Allison Hayes delivers some of the most incredible picture stills. When she is breaking out from the roof of her house, her beauty mark just says hey. Her face as she is looking through the window at the hotel, and even when she is walking behind the electricity tower before getting shot down are just gorgeous.

So it was campy, it's the 50's, technology was not as advanced as today but to re-make this movie with Darryl Hannah was a mistake.

This "Cult Classic" should be put on DVD (hint, hint) and digitally enhanced, try to fix the mistakes, if possible and re-issue this movie. Trust me it has a following, also the main score gives the movie the scary touch.I heard the score in another sci-fi movie, recognized it immediately but the effect was not the same.

Someone mentioned the poster, which i have and i had it matted; it looks incredible and its a conversation piece.

Someone put this on DVD! Allison Hayes and this Movie Rocks!

First of all, I have to mention that the title character has the prettiest legs of any 50 foot woman.

Whether you take this movie seriously, or watch it for the fun of it, you will realize that the campy thing is not half bad.

The acting? I've seen a lot worse. The plot, complete with jealousy, etc. was reasonable. All of the lead roles were quite good, and there were a fair amount of intentional laughs, especially deputy Charlie, an early version of Barney.

They see these humongous footprints. "Who made those?" Reply, "it wasn't a Japanese gardener." Anywho, if you have nothing else to do grab this 50 foot gal. You won't be thrilled by the special effects but, you shouldn't be bored.

A woman as rich as she is insecure has a history of alcoholism and nervous breakdowns, helped no doubt by a smooth-talking gigolo husband who openly cheats on her. Naturally nobody believes her when she claims to have been accosted by a giant man who stepped out of a giant satellite. Much to the delight of her husband, this could be the incident which finally puts her away for good.

From the very opening scenes, with it's ludicrous news broadcast and ridiculous satellite encounter, you'll probably be convinced that the only redeeming value of this movie is that it is so bad that it is funny. Although not too far off the mark, this is most definitely not true.

Unlike most movies of this genre, this is not really a sci-fi or a horror film, but actually a serious drama which intelligently incorporates a sci-fi scenario into the plot. It's not a good or even mediocre drama, but it will exceed your expectations if you weren't expecting any legitimate drama at all. The acting is surprisingly good for such a low budget effort and, most importantly, it is well edited and excellently paced. It is never boring and manages to generate more than a little interest in seeing what will come next. Nevertheless, this is still a movie strictly for those who can't pass up the chance to see a 1950s film with a title like "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"!

You have got to love this outlandish movie. Allison Hayes is really over the top (in more ways than one) as she goes after Harry who is out cavorting with Yvette Vickers in the local bar. The special effects are the usual 1950's superimposed see through images that you've come to love in cheesy movies (see the Amazing Colossal Man). The foam rubber hand that crushes the life out of Harry is really bad...it just kind of flops around, flaccid and dead looking but it does the trick....I hope Harry isn't latex intolerant! This is a lot of fun and is one of the gems of the genre. If you hear someone calling "Harry, Harry", run for your life...the foam rubber hand is after you!

Wealthy, drunken woman--a previous resident of the local booby hatch--sees an alien spacecraft in the desert with a 30ft. Man inside, but she can't get anyone to believe her. Close encounters of the stupid kind; drive-in rubbish with a radiation-scare tactic. Mark Hanna's hot-air script is mostly all set-up--and once the pay-off comes, the picture is out of time! I wouldn't say "50 Foot Woman" is totally incompetent: there's a neat shot near the end with the townspeople running up behind Allison Hayes lying in the road. Otherwise, the trick photography and props are third-rate, and the marital melodrama which sucks up most of the narrative is completely without interest. * from ****

Allison Hayes plays the title character, a spurned woman named Nancy Archer, whose husband Harry(played by William Hudson) has been unfaithful to her, having a repeated affair with Honey Parker(played by Yvette Vickers). When she has two bizarre encounters with a UFO(manned by a giant) she finds herself growing to(you guessed it) 50Ft. tall, going on her "attack" in the last few minutes, trying to get Harry and Honey for revenge, before the police shoot her. Not a Bert I. Gordon production, though just as shoddy and inept, only more so this time. Only good for laughs, though attractive Allison Hayes became something of a "B" movie queen.

Attack of the fifty foot woman is one of those crazy low budget silly movies that truly is so bad its good.Allison Hayes(real sexy for her time)plays a rich but drunken woman who has a cheating husband(William Hudson)who has an affair with a red head floozy(Yvette Vickers)who was in attack of the giant leeches a year before.well Allison meets a giant alien baldy that makes her grow into a giant bathing beauty.not only does she grow to 50 feet tall but her bust size increases 30 feet as well.and her hair turns blonde.the other special effects consist of a big inflated rubber hand.and some tinker toy electric towers.its silly but fun stuff.i found it truly insane but i have to keep watching it,maybe the 50 foot woman could meet the amazing colossal man(57)and they could get it on.and have giant kids.i wish they would release this to DVD soon.they did however do a remake in the 1990's with Daryl(splash,kill bill 1&2)hannah,but its not the same even with better special effects.i personally like the original,its so bad its good.6 out of 10.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman may well be one of the worst science-fiction films of all time, but that's not to say that it isn't thoroughly enjoyable. Allison Hayes achieved screen immortality as Nancy Archer, the wealthy, dipsomaniac wife of shameless philanderer Harry Archer (William Hudson). When she witnesses the crash landing of a alien spaceship -- whose occupant is a 30-foot giant, dressed in the manner of a medieval Frenchmen! -- Nancy goes to the local sheriff (George Douglas) with her story, only to be laughed off as a drunken crank. Even the local TV anchorman makes cruel fun of Nancy on his nightly newscast. Meanwhile, hubby Harry is making whoopee at a roadhouse with his latest tootsie, Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). Not long afterward, Nancy, who's been exposed to the radiation of the spaceship, begins to feel queasy. Within a few days, she has grown to the height of 50 feet and is lumbering around the countryside clad only in a gigantic towel, smashing houses and trees in search of her faithless husband ("HARRY-HARRY!!!") Hilarious in its ineptitude (the special effects are particularly shoddy), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is impossible to dislike

In the inverted universe of 'bad movies', "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" is outstanding. Wealthy but unbalanced Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) is twice accosted in the desert by a giant alien. The second time he thoughtfully returns her home, but only after relieving her of the most valuable diamond in the world, which she was wearing around her neck. Meanwhile, her womanising husband Harry (William Hudson) is making time with trollop Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers, whose actual demise had a B-flavour), who is encouraging him to have Nancy committed (or worse), so as to take over her fortune. This being the late 1950s, satellites and radiation are plot devices, and Nancy has mysterious radioactive marks on her neck (presumably from the alien's larcenous fingers), which seem to cause her to suddenly enlarge. Now immense and furious (and inexplicably blond), she breaks out of her house clad in a bedsheet bikini to hunt down Harry, leading to the titular attack and not unexpected denouement. The short but entertaining micro-budget film has all of the quicks and flaws that make 'bad movies' so endearing. The special effects are dire (see IMDB 'goofs section for details), most notably: the iconic giant rubber hand (hairy when the alien's, with nail polish when Nancy's), and the poor matteing that results in a semi-transparent giant Nancy and a semi-transparent giant alien (who, like the Coneheads (1993), seems to be from France, judging by the fleur-de-lis on his breastplate). The unsubtle acting and hackneyed characters are classic B-movie, with an often hysterical Nancy, smooth, two-timing Harry, conniving floozy Honey, and semi-competent cops with little sense of safe gun-handling. With a short running time (66 minutes), the film doesn't outstay its welcome and is eminently watchable (and rewatchable), which is the sign of a great movie, no matter how bad it is. One of the true camp-classics.

This one is really a love triangle with husband Harry (William Hudson) and wife Allison Hayes, and... interloper Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). When a UFO flies by, and wacky stuff happens to the Mrs., all of a sudden she's fifty feet tall, and mad as hell. her husband only comes around when he needs money. and the damn nurse won't stop screaming.... gadz. lots of running fast and driving fast. It's kind of erie, when Mrs. Archer comes into town, she's so tall, compared to everything else. It's pretty basic, but was probably pretty exciting at the time. They keep showing a giant hand, pretty much the only special effects. it's all pretty cheesy. Nicely brought to a satisfying end, at around one hour and six minutes. Director Nathan Juran had won Best Art Direction for "How Green was my Valley", and nominated for another. An Allied Artists production. it's pretty harmless.